Movie Review: Snake Girl and the Silver Haired Witch (1968) directed by Noriaki Yuasa
Sayuri (Yachie Matsui) has mostly been okay with living at the Catholic orphanage with the Director nun (Kuniko Miyake) and handsome “big brother” Tatsuya (Sei Hiraizumi). But now she’s been adopted by the Nanjo family, and she’s determined to be a good daughter to her new parents. Perhaps the overnight death of one of the maids by heart attack is a bad omen, but it could have been a coincidence.
Sayuri’s new father, Goro Nanjo (Yoshiro Kitahara), is a noted herpetologist, and is called away to an urgent find in Africa on the very night she arrives, leaving the new daughter in the care of her new mother, Yuko Nanjo (Yuko Hamada) and head servant Shige Kito (Sachiko Meguro). It soon becomes evident that there’s another person living in the house, and Sayuri is introduced to her new sister Tamami (Mayumi Takahashi). This person was not mentioned to Sayuri during the adoption process, but she’s willing to be a good sister as well.
Tamami is…odd, and is hostile to Sayuri. She may or may not be a snake person, but her behavior is explained away as selfishness or jealousy, and any physical evidence vanishes whenever Sayuri tries to show it.
Sayuri tells her woes to Tatsuya, who is not convinced anything supernatural is going on (some of Sayuri’s experiences are obvious dream sequences) but does suspect that all is not on the up and up. He consults with the Director, who tells Tatsuya that Tamami wasn’t mentioned as living in the Nanjo home, because she isn’t supposed to be. She was institutionalized two years ago after a mental breakdown where she started thinking she was a snake. Yuko must secretly have sprung Tamami and hid her in the house without Goro’s knowledge.
Tamami’s getting more and more openly hostile to Sayuri, but there may be a more sinister force lurking in the shadows.
This movie was loosely adapted from the horror manga of Kazuo Umezu (“Cat-Eyed Boy”) and includes some of his trademark bizarre imagery. It uses its dark house with darker secrets setting well, and is just vague enough about the supernatural bits that you’re kept guessing through most of the film whether they are actually happening, faked, or Sayuri’s just hallucinating.
The big twist towards the end you may have seen coming, but doesn’t answer the question of why that person went to such elaborate lengths when the only people that needed fooling was the audience.
Content notes: bullying, many scenes with snakes, and one very vivid multiple spider scene.
The film is fairly rare, and you might have trouble tracking down a good print, but if you like an old-fashioned spooky movie, this one has its charms.
